Artist and journalist Zehra Doğan sentenced for 3 years of prison

Artist and journalist Zehra Doğan, who was released from prison on December 9, was sentenced for 2 years, 9 months and 22 days of imprison by Mardin 2nd Heavy Penal Court on Thursday.

Zehra Doğan, who was an editor of the pro-Kurdish feminist news agency JİNHA which was closed by AKP government after coup attempt on July 15, 2016, had been arrested on July 23, 2016 with the charge over “membership to terror organization” and “making propaganda on the behalf of terror organization.”

Painter and journalist Doğan’s art and writings were reportedly used against her by prosecutors as evidence of her membership to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Zehra Doğan’s trial continued on Thursday at Mardin 2nd Heavy Penal Court which has given her 2 years 9 months and 22 days of prison sentence for the content she shared on social media on December 21, 2015 as well as a news article she wrote on the notes of 10 years-old Elif Akboğa on December 22, 2015.

Stockholm Center for Freedom, an advocacy group that monitors rights violations in Turkey, issued a report on Wednesday, saying that the number of jailed journalist has reached to a new record of 200 with Germany’s Die Welt, Deniz Yücel being among new arrestees.

Of these journalists, 179 are arrested pending trial and without a conviction. Most of the journalists do not even know what the charges are or what evidence, if any, the government has because the indictments were not filed yet.